Elizabethan England
Stratford Upon
Avon in 1600
•Stratford Upon Avon was
classed as an important
market town, and
Shakespeare’s time it would
have had a population of
about 2500 people which was
quite big in those days.
•Market day in Stratford was a
Thursday, and the town would
have been very busy with
buyers and sellers. Most
people walked everywhere
and did not even own a horse
and cart so they had to do all
their shopping in towns very
close to home.
•Market stalls and shops
would have included
shoemakers, wheelwrights,
blacksmiths, bakers and fruit
and vegetable sellers
Other Stratford
Facts
• The shape of Elizabethan towns,
including Stratford, was based on a
grid pattern of streets. The streets
branched out off a main street
which was usually the main road
through the town.
• Stratford is built on the banks of
the River Avon, which is why it is
called Stratford Upon Avon. The
town grew in size and prosperity
after a bridge was built across the
river.
• Some of the streets in Stratford
were names after the markets that
were held there of the types of
shops and businesses. For example,
Sheep Street, Rother Street (Rother
is the old English word for cattle),
Corn Street or Swine Street (Pig
Street!!). Some of these street
names still exist in modern day
Stratford.
• In Shakespeare’s time Stratford
Upon Avon was famous for
‘malting’. Malting is the grinding
and roasting of barley grain used to
brew beer.

The Stratford Sentinel
Town Devastated by Fire for Man fined for causing public
Second Time offence.
A second disastrous fire has swept
through the centre of Stratford destroying
more houses and businesses. Adding to
the damage caused by last year’s fire, it is
estimated that as many as 120 houses have
been destroyed.
The fire has been blamed on shoddy and
ramshackle houses built by the migrant
poor who have been flooding into
Stratford over the past few years.
A corporation spokesperson said:
“Buildings made of timber and thatch
pose a constant risk from fire, and we
would ask the good people of Stratford to
be vigilant in extinguishing their cooking
fires to prevent further tragedy.”
October 1595
People thinking they can dodge the law and dump
their toilet waste in unofficial “muckheaps”, be
warned. A well to do local business man has been
fined by the town magistrate for making a muckheap
near his house instead of using the public muckheap
on the outskirts of the town.
A spokesperson for the town council said: “The public
muckheap has been set up in a place least likely to
cause offence from its odours and vapours. We will
not tolerate unofficial muckheaps.”
Stratford Corporation
Powers
Clarification of Stratford Corporation’s powers were
outlined earlier this week. The corporation controls
the markets within the town and has made bye-laws to
prevent “nuisances” in the town and impose fines on
those citizens who break the bye-laws or cause a
nuisance. Any offences like failing to attend church,
drunkenness or sorcery will be dealt with by the
Church Court headed by the bishop.
 The Bard Tavern
Menu
Breakfast
Manchet: finest quality white bread
Cheat : ordinary white bread
Simple: brown bread
Frumenty: wheat porridge
Flummery: boiled oatmeal

Meat
Game: Rabbit, Hare, Venison
Fowl: Lark, Curlew, Chicken
Meat: Mutton, beef, lamb.

Pudding
Quaking Pudding: Custard and
breadcrumbs
Sack Posset: Cream dessert with
Madeira wine

Drinks
Beer: Made with malted hops
Apple Cider: Made with local apples
Sack: Dry Spanish wine
 Life and Times
Of William Shakespeare
 Certificate of Birth
Born this day April 23rd in the year of
our Lord 1564 in Stratford Upon
Avon, in the most glorious County of
Warwickshire.

A boy, William, to John Shakespeare

Esquire, esteemed Glovemaker and
Wool Merchant, and his wife Mary
(nee Arden).

His name shall be entered in the

dockets and records of the Town Hall
of Stratford Upon Avon as decreed by
the laws of Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth 1.

Witnessed April 24th in the year of

our Lord
ER 1564.
 Grammar School
• The sons of the richer citizens would
move on, at the age of seven, to
grammar school (girls were not
Shakespeare at
educated in schools). As a prosperous
School craftsman, businessman and leading
The town's petty school townsman, John Shakespeare would
was like primary school have made sure that his son attended
for William Shakespeare the grammar school in Stratford.
and the other five-year- • School hours were 7 am in the morning
olds of Stratford-upon- until 6pm in the evening and boys
Avon. attended school 6 days a week (Monday
Children were taught to to Saturday) Although there was a
read using simple 'abc break of a couple of hours in the middle
books‘ which included of the day, there was no PE or play
the Lord's Prayer, the included in the timetable and no
Creed and the Ten holidays except for the occasional day's
Commandments. There holiday. On Sundays, the boys had to go
were no pens or pencils to church .
in Shakespeare’s time, so • Shakespeare would have learnt all his
to learn to write, lessons in Latin. This was the
children had to use a international language of Europe, used
quill pen and ink. throughout the professions, in the law,
A quill pen was made in medicine and in the Church, and,
from a bird’s feather. boys were expected to be fluent in Latin
to go into jobs like lawyers, doctors or
priests in the church.
• Their lessons were grammar, logic,
rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music
and astronomy.

The Stratford Sentinel
Local playwright
Marries
William Shakespeare (18)
married Anne Hathaway (26)
in November. The groom is
the son of John and Mary
Shakespeare and the bride, the
daughter of local farmer
Richard Hathaway.
Brothers and sisters
The couple were married at
the local parish church in
Stratford Upon Avon where
the groom’s 3 brothers were
best man and ushers. His sister
Joan was a bridesmaid. His
other sister Ann died in
childhood.
December 1582
Pig sold for record Tax on Cider
price at auction Local pub go-ers
Father of the bride, Richard were outraged last
Hathaway had more good week when the
news today after his prize government
Gloucester Old Spot pig announced a new
higher tax on cider.
recorded a record price at
the local Stratford Upon Local apple grower
Avon livestock Auctions. and cider maker Mr.
Jacob Swithinbank
The pedigree pig was sold said “it’s an outrage
for 3 duckets and Mr. for the hard working
people of England
Hathaway said “that prize
pig is worth its weight in that an essential
gold and has helped me pay commodity like cider
the dowry for my daughter should be taxed to
Anne’s weeding to Mr. this level.”
Shakespeare.
Stratford Livestock Auctions.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the town green. For
the best prices on pigs, cattle and sheep.
 New Place in Stratford-Upon-Avon

Last Years in Stratford Upon Avon

Shakespeare’s elder daughter, Susanna, married John Hall,
a Stratford doctor in 1607. His other daughter Judith
married Thomas Quiney in 1616. She was born a twin, but
her brother Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died aged 11.

From around 1611, Shakespeare seems to have retired

from London theatre life and spent most of his time at his
house, “New Place”, in Stratford.

He died in Stratford on 23rd April 1616 aged 52 and was

buried 2 days later in Holy Trinity Church. Within a short
time, a monument was put up on the wall close to his
grave.

His wife Anne died in 1623 and is buried beside him.

Elizabethan Theatre

Street
Entertainment
The Elizabethans were very
fond of any type of
entertainment and they had
plenty of ways of enjoying
themselves. Street theatre like
acrobats, jugglers and
musicians would play in streets.
Other, more gruesome forms
of entertainment that always
attracted crowds were public
hangings or executions.
Another cruel sport that the
Elizabethan’s enjoyed was
animal fighting. Special arenas
or yards were built with
galleries all around where
people could pay to see how
many dogs would dare to
attack a fierce bull or huge
bear. This was called bull or
bear baiting.
Queen Elizabeth I had her
own bull and bear master to
organise these tournaments.
By Royal Approval
• Queen Elizabeth I loved theatre
and if she visited the theatre, she
would have sat the Gentleman’s
Rooms, a private box in the
galleries.
• Ordinary people could not afford
to sit in the more expensive seats
in the tiers of the Globe, so would
pay to watch a play in the standing
area at the front of the stage. This
was the cheapest area and the
people that watched from here
were called groundlings.
• The Globe is the most famous
Elizabethan Theatre and it was
owned and built by William
Shakespeare. The Globe theatre
that exists in London today is an
exact reproduction of
Shakespeare's original Globe.
• Shakespeare’s theatre company
was called ‘The Lord Chamberlain’s
Men’.
• After Queen Elizabeth I’s death,
King James I took to the throne. He
loved theatre too and in particular
the works of Shakespeare. He
sponsored Shakespeare’s theatre
company and they came to be
known as The King’s Men.

• In Elizabethan Theatre, all
of the parts were played
by men. Young men
played the parts of
women and girls while
older men may have had
parts like witches, wizards
or hags.
• Women and girls were not
allowed to act.
• Actors generally wore
Elizabethan dress as
costumes. They were very
elaborate and sometimes
very expensive. For
example, costumes made
of silk, satin and velvet
and embroidered with
gold and silver thread
were often worn.
• If a play was set in
historical times like
Shakespeare’s play
Cymbleine which was set
in Roman times, actors
may have worn Roman
style costume so that
audiences knew the
characters were Roman.
• Blood, Guts and
Other Special Effects
• Elizabethan audiences loved blood,
gore and guts. Popular plays of the day
were full of witches, wizards, ghosts,
murders and battles and the actors
used lots of ingenious ways to create
special effects.
• For example, to recreate the effect of
someone being killed in battle, actors
used bladders full of pigs blood which
burst when another actor pretended
to stab them.
• The sound of thunder was created by
rolling a cannon ball across the floor at
the back of the stage or above the
stage.
• Sometimes a trap door in the heavens
was used to fly characters down to the
stage, looking like they had appeared
from the sky.
• If the audience was not impressed
with a show, they could add their own
‘special effects’ like boos and hisses
and throw rotten fruit, vegetables and
eggs at the actors!
 The Globe
 The stage in the Globe theatre
was open on three sides.
 At the back of the stage there
were doors for actors to make
their entrances and exits.
 There was a trap door in the
floor of the stage which was
used in particular for characters
like witches and ghosts to
“appear” or “disappear”.
 The stage was usually called an
Theatres like the
“apron stage” because it stuck
Globe could hold up to
2500 people, but as out into the audience like an
there were no lights, apron.
shows were put on  At either side of an Elizabethan
during daylight hours. If
Theatre stage, there were two
there was a scene in a
play that was supposed pillars to support the stage roof,
to be at night time, the but they were also used as part
actors would let the of the play by providing hiding
audience would know places for characters.
through words or
actions. For example, in
 The balcony above the stage
Macbeth, one of the was used by musicians who
lines that lets the played during the performance
audience know it was set or for scenes in plays like the
at night is “How goes the balcony scene in Shakespeare’s
night boy?”
Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare’s Works
 Trivia
 It is thought that Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays. They fell
into 3 categories: comedies, histories and tragedies.
 He also wrote 154 sonnets. These are long poems made up of
14 lines. They get their name from the Italian for ‘Little Song’.
 The character of’ Bardolph’ appears in 4 of Shakespeare’s plays:
Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V and The Merry Wives of
Windsor.
 Shakespeare took the plots and stories for many of his plays from
existing stories or events from history. For example, his play Julius
Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra were based on the events and
lives of the ancient Romans.
 Shakespeare’s works have been translated into over 80 languages.
 Today, there is a theatre company based in Stratford that
performs only plays written by Shakespeare. It is called the
Royal Shakespeare Company.
 Shakespeare’s longest play is Hamlet, and the shortest is The
Comedy of Errors.
 Romeo and Juliet
• Two rival families live in the city of Verona in Italy, the Capulets and the Montagues. The
families hate each other. Romeo is a Montague boy and is about 16 years of age, and
Juliet is a Capulet girl of about 14.
• Juliet’s father wants her to marry Count Paris and throws a party to introduce them to
each other. Romeo and his friends hear about t party and decide to go in disguise. At
the party, he meets Juliet and they fall madly in love with each other. Because the
families hate each other so much, Romeo and Juliet decide to get married in secret.
• The two families continue to fight and Juliet’s cousin Tybalt picks a fight with Romeo’s
best friend Mercutio. Romeo tries to stop the fighting, but his friend Mercutio is
accidentally killed by Tybalt.
• In anger Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished from Verona as a punishment. Juliet does
not know about the fight, but when she finds out, the kindly Friar who married them
arranges for her and Romeo to spend one last night together before Romeo is sent
away.
• Meanwhile, her father, who still does not know she is married to Romeo, decides to
bring her wedding to Count Paris forward to try and make the family forget Tybalt’s
death. Juliet tells her mother and father she does not want to marry Count Paris, but
still does not tell them why. Her mother and father are very angry with her.
• Juliet goes to Friar Lawrence again and together they plan a way that Romeo and Juliet
can let their families know they are married. He gives Juliet a sleeping potion that will
make her seem dead. When he father and mother go to wake her in the morning they
are think she has died in her sleep.
• The Friar sends a message to tell Romeo to come to the Capulet's family monument to
rescue his sleeping wife. But the message gets mixed up and Romeo believes Juliet is
really dead. He is so sad that he buys some poison in order to kill himself.
• He returns to Verona and goes to the tomb where Juliet lies sleeping. Count Pairs is also
there and Romeo, blinded by anger and love, kills him. Romeo then takes the poison
and dies just as Juliet wakes from her drugged sleep.
• Friar Lawrence tells her what happened but she refuses to leave Romeo and stabs
herself.
• The deaths of Romeo and Juliet lead the families to make peace.
 The Merchant
•
of Venice
An Italian man Bassanio needs money impress a girl called Portia. He asks his
friend Antonio, the Merchant of Venice to lend him the money.
• Antonio agrees but is a bit short of cash as it is all tied up in his ships which are at
sea, so he suggests that Bassanio borrows the money from one of Venice’s
moneylenders and says he will the loan back from Bassanio.
• They approach a Jewish money lender called Shylock for the loan. Shylock and
Antonio go way back, but they don’t like each other – Antonio has insulted
Shylock on many occasions.
• Shylock lends the money, but says if it is unpaid, then he wants a pound of
Antonio’s own flesh. Antonio agrees to the terms of the loan.
• Meanwhile , Portia’s father has decided on a task for any man who wants to
marry his daughter. They must choose a box and if they make the right choice,
they can marry Portia – so far no one has chosen correctly.
• Bassanio arrives at Portia’s estate and they fall in love with each other.
Fortunately, he also picks the correct box . Portia gives him a ring as a token of
their love and makes him swear he will never part with it.
• News arrives that Antonio’s ships have been wrecked and Shylock is after his
pound of flesh. Bassanio returns to Venice to try and save Antonio’s life.
Unknown to him, Portia follows disguised as a man.
• Portia examines the contract and says it is legal, but warns Shylock that the
contract does not mention any blood, so she tells Shylock he can have his pound
of flesh if he does so without spilling any of Antonio’s blood.
• Shylock is told he has to pay Antonio for the upset he has caused, but Antonio
refuses his money saying he wants Shylock to convert to Christianity instead –
Shylock reluctantly agrees.
• Bassanio goes to thank the lawyer (Portia in disguise) and gives him the ring as
gratitude. Portia reveals who she really is and tells off Bassanio for giving away
the ring.
• Antonio’s ships tern out not to have been shipwrecked and they all live happily
ever after!
 The Seven Ages of Man
William Shakespeare is England’s most famous writer. He loved plays that much that
he once said life was a bit like a play and we go through life in seven scenes. In his
play As You Like It, the character Jacques says the famous Seven Ages of Man speech.

If we could put the life of Shakespeare into seven scenes, maybe it would
look a bit like this.

“All the world’s a stage ,

And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”
ACT 1: “At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurses arms.”
April 1564: William Shakespeare is born.
ACT 5: “And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.”
Shakespeare has become a successful playwright and
his plays are famous in London. He has bought a
family home “New Place” with his wealth.

ACT 2: “Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel,

And shining morning face, creeping like a snail
Unwillingly to school.”
Shakespeare attends his local grammar school.
ACT 3: “And then the lover,
Sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballad,
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.”
Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway when he is 18.
ACT 6: “The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on his nose and pouch on his side,
His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.”
Shakespeare has retired from theatre life in London

ACT 4: “Then a soldier, ACT 7: “Last scene of all,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation,
Even in the cannon’s mouth.”
Shakespeare makes his way to London in May 1592
and fights to make his way and his name in the
theatre.
That ends this strange and eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
Shakespeare is a grandfather now and dies in 1616 an
old man of 52 (it was old in those days).